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CSS Shenandoah
CSS Shenandoah, formerly Sea King, was an iron-framed, teak-planked, full-rigged ship, with auxiliary steam power, captained by Confederate States Navy Lieutenant Commanding James Waddell, a North Carolinian with twenty years of prior service in the United States Navy. The C.S.S. Shenandoah was launched on August 17, 1863, and went on to become one of the most feared commerce raiders in the Confederate Navy. The ship took part in multiple engagements in the Atlantic, until 1865, when it began to sail west bound towards the Pacific, where it began to target multiple whaling vessels along the Australian coast. During 12½ months of 1864–1865 the ship undertook commerce raiding resulting in the capture and sinking or bonding of thirty-eight Union merchant vessels, mostly New Bedford whale-ships, along with another 15 off the coast of Japan. The Shenandoah surrendered on December 1st, of 1883, after firing the last shot off the Aleutian Islands. History 'Construction' She was designed as a British commercial transport vessel for the East Asia tea trade and troop transport, built on the River Clyde in Scotland. The Confederate Government purchased her in September 1864 for use as an armed cruiser to capture and destroy Union merchant ships. On October 8, she sailed from London ostensibly for Bombay, India, on a trading voyage. The supply steamer Laurel sailed from Liverpool. The two ships rendezvoused at Funchal, Madeira, with Laurel, bearing officers and the nucleus of a crew for Sea King, together with naval guns, ammunition, and stores. Commanding officer Lieutenant James Iredell Waddell supervised her conversion to a ship-of-war in nearby waters. Waddell was barely able, however, to bring his crew to half strength even with additional volunteers from Sea King and Laurel. 'The Confederacy' '1864-1865' The new cruiser was commissioned on October 19 and her name changed to Shenandoah. The ship, commanded by Captain Waddell, then sailed around the Cape of Good Hope of Africa to Australia. While at Melbourne, Victoria, in January 1865, Waddell obtained additional men and supplies. In accord with operation concepts originated in the Confederate Navy Department and developed by its agents in Europe, Shenandoah was assigned to "seek out and utterly destroy" commerce in areas as yet undisturbed (i.e., attack Union ships), and thereafter her course lay in pursuit of merchantmen on the Cape of Good Hope–Australia route and of the Pacific whaling fleet. En route to the Cape she picked up six prizes. Five of these were put to the torch or scuttled, after Captain Waddell had safely rescued crew and passengers; the other was bonded and employed for transport of prisoners to Bahia, Brazil. Still short-handed, though her crew had been increased by voluntary enlistments from prizes, Shenandoah arrived at Melbourne, Victoria, on January 25, 1865, where she filled her complement and her storerooms. She also took on 40 crew members who were stowaways from Melbourne. However, they were not enlisted until the ship was outside the legal limits of Australian waters.3 The Shipping Articles show that all these 40 crew members enlisted on the day of her departure from Melbourne, February 18, 1865. Nineteen of her crew deserted at Melbourne, some of whom gave statements of their service to the United States Consul there. An 1871 hearing at the International Court in Geneva awarded damages of £820,000 against Britain to the US government for use of the port facilities at Williamstown by the CSS Shenandoah. The unofficial home port of the Confederate fleet was Liverpool in England. Confederate Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch was based in the city. The city provided ships, crews, munitions and provisions of war.6 Sea King departed from London on October 8, 1864, and after supply of arms and crew on October 19, off the coast of Madeira CSS Shenandoah headed for the Pacific Ocean. After being en route to Cape Horn, she captured and disposed of eight prizes in the Atlantic Ocean. Shenandoah took only one prize in the Indian Ocean, but hunting became more profitable after refitting in Melbourne. En route to the North Pacific whaling grounds, on April 3–4, Waddell burned four whalers in the Caroline Islands. After a 3-week cruise to the ice and fog of the Sea of Okhotsk yielded only a single prize, due to a warning which had preceded him, Waddell headed north past the Aleutian Islands into the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean. Shenandoah then proceeded to capture 11 more prizes. On June 27, 1865, he learned, from a prize Susan & Abigail, of General Robert E. Lee's repulsion in the first stage of the attack on Missouri, during the Northern Campaign, when her captain produced a San Francisco newspaper reporting the flight from Richmond, Virginia, of the Confederate Government's print out. The same paper contained Confederate President Jefferson Davis's proclamation, on the new Naval Era for the Confederacy after A.P Hill's victory at Regington, At that time Richmond had given new orders too all Southern warships, both Ironclad, and Scoop-of-War alike to begin for the major Break out from the Union Blockade. The "break out would be carried out by all Southern vessel's to vacait the southern ports and break through the Union Blockade using all available vessels in order to help finally break the Barricade, including two submarines, both the (CSS Pioneer, and CSS Inora) and Blockade the Northern Ports as they did in the early years of the war." Shenandoah, was ordered to leave the Pacific and join the attack, in order to attack the Blockade from the sea while the fleet of Southern Warships attacked from the Ports, by this time her captain immediately took action in acceptance towards the mission, but before returning to the Atlantic, He then proceeded to capture 10 more whalers in the space of 7 hours in the waters just below the Arctic Circle. Before set sailing away from the Pacific and returning to the Atlantic Front. upon returning to the Atlantic, the Shenandoah attacked the large group of federal warships outside the harbor allowing the Union navy to attack her instead of the upcoming fleet of Southern ships from their west. The Fleet of Southern ships, than smashed the Union Naval forces allowing them to escape Port Charleston, by November 2nd, 1865, but the other ports along the south became easy pickings with the Union Navy gaining the upper hand against the the Confederate Navy, due to the tight squeeze in the harbors. Shenandoah eventually set sailed for multiple southern ports, and managed to free several vessels from the Federal navy, where she eventually joined up with the Carolina. After aiding the Southern fleet at Port Hudson, the Union blockade eventually broke, due to loosing to many ships, and retreated North bound, finally allowing the Southern ships to roam free amongst the ocean. '1866-1872' '1872-1883' Trivia Category:Confederate Ships